Towanda, IL; Oral and written family and personal stories; Personal stories

This is a written history of Patrick Kinsella, born in Ireland in 1829, his wife Margaret Bolan and their eleven children. Patrick immigrated in 1853 and purchased his first farm in Towanda Township in 1864. Photographs of Margaret and Patrick...

This written history, entitled "History of St. Patrick's Parish, Merna, Illinois", was written by parishioner Margaret Larkin Kinsella in 1939, added to in 1959, and re-edited in 1975, by her daughter Mary Kinsella Kelley and a grandaughter, Ann...

Memories of life in Towanda, Illinois from 1856-1969, told through the eyes of Towanda resident, Mary Etta 'Lillian' Peterson Michael. Lillian described her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William W. Jones, Sr., arrival in the area; her childhood;...